Finance Adviser Dr Salehuddin Ahmed today (Monday) said that Bangladesh’s economy has made a turnaround, with foreign currency reserves strengthening and traders regaining confidence.
“The government is implementing several measures to give a boost to the economy,” he said while speaking as the chief guest at a discussion marking the ‘July Uprising Day’ at the central bank headquarters in the city, UNB reports.
Financial Institutions Division Secretary Nazma Mobarek and BB Governor Dr Ahsan H Mansur attended the discussion as the chief guest, while BB Deputy Governor Md Zakir Hossain Chowdhury presided over the programme.
Mentioning the ‘July Uprising’ as a difficult time, Salehuddin said, “We pay tribute to martyrs of the July Uprising and wish the injured a speedy recovery. Sacrifices of the students and common people will not be forgotten.”
Ahsan H Mansur said the government is working to bring down the general point to point inflation rate to 3 -5 per cent.
“Our aims are to bring inflation down to 3 to 5 per cent. I hope it is possible. We’re implementing different policy measures to this end,” he said.
He said inflation has not yet come down at the expected level, although the fiscal measures are being implemented to control domestic borrowings.
Regarding the BB’s autonomy, the governor said that they want to transform the central bank into a completely autonomous institution that will not be influenced by government machinery.
“We want to reshape focus of the BB. We’ll leave the activities that are not core central banking. We’ll give utmost priority to issues linked with compliance, regulations and enforcement,” he added.
He said that if autonomy is implemented in the central bank, the picture of the country’s financial sector will change. “We may not stay, but we want to make some changes,” he added.